At it's peak, under emperor Kanishka, the Kushans struck coins of gold where the image of Buddha, with several of the 32 marks of Buddha hood, appeared for the first time in North India. Kanishka was desirous of living harmoniously with the various peoples and religions within his kingdom and beyond, and the art of Kushan period thus shows Hellenistic, Iranian, Indian (Brahmanical) and Roman influences from time to time. Yet he himself was a big patron of Buddhism and is at times referred to as the second Ashoka for Buddhism. Under his royal patronage, monks were attracted from Doab to the Gandharan regions where permanent monasteries were established for them. These monasteries provided an endless gallery for sculptured reliefs of the Buddha and Bodhisatvas. The ruins of one such huge monastery and its Gandharan stupa survive in Guldara in present day Afghanistan. The Gandharan stupa had a taller than usual dome and the square railing at the summit was also enlarged and more elaborate, but the  most remarkable feature which distinguished the Gandharan stupa from the previous styles was the huge size of the tiered umbrellas at its peak almost towering over the entire structure. The greatest of all Gandharan stupas was erected by Kanishka at Shah-ji-ki-Dheri on the outskirts of Peshawar (Kanishka's capital in the North) along with hundreds of other smaller stupas and a monastery surrounding it of which very little remains today. The Chinese monks attracted by the royal patronage to Buddhism are credited with some of the most comprehensive chronicles of that period of Indian history. One of the favourite sculpture media for the Kushans (known as Gandhara sculpture) was a blue grey schist flecked with mica, which is distinctive of Gandhara sculpture just like Chunar sandstone is typical to Mauryan sculpture. The abundance of Gandharan sculpture was an art which originated with foreign craftsmen.

After the decline of the Kushana power due to attacks by the Sassanians and the White Huns from North Central Asia, the remnants of Gandharan art lingered on in Kashmir and Afghanistan. However, in the deep, jade green valleys of the caravan route between Takshila and Bactria, the wandering monks undermined the high rock cliffs of the Hindukush with sacred grottoes luxuriously decorated with sculptures and paintings with both Indian and Iranian influences decorated with stucco (prolifically used for ornamentation, in what is now Afghanistan) creating one of Buddhism's greatest monastic centres at Bamiyan. The most spectacular carvings at Bamiyan are the three majestic figures of the Buddha, cut into the valley walls, towering  upto 175 feet in height. After the eighth century however, this monastic centre was abandoned and the advent of Islam in Central Asia made these huge icons a target for the Mongol and Mughal intolerance suffering major damages.In Surkh Kotal around late first century, Kanishka had a unique dynastic shrine erected which transformed a complete hill into a sanctuary for stone figures of Kushan rulers and various deities. A remarkable feature of this monument was that it had a parallel down south in central India at Mathura. Called the Mat or Tokri Tila, it was plundered for centuries by the local villagers for building materials, leaving nothing but the mutilated remnants of Sikri sandstone sculptures. However, the workshops where these sculptures were made, at Mathura, which was already a holy place for Jains, Buddhists and Hindus, benefitted from exchange of sculptural styles and features due to this unique Kushan experiment.Close to Mathura was discovered the parallel of the Tokri tila, another Kushan dynastic shrine at Gokarneshwar, as well as a Jain stupa location at Kankali Tila.

   Buddhist sculptures originating from Mathura during the reign of Kushans also includes many aYaksh  and Yakshi and Naga (serpent deities) figures, demonstrating their descent from the Shunga originals, though the Yakshas evolved into Bodhisattvas to fit into Buddhism. The Mathuran icons were popular all over Doab, and even Sarnath, where they were copied in the local Chunar (cream) sandstone. Early examples of entirely Indian Buddha are ascribed to this period in Mathura, wearing thin robes suitable for warmer climates. This style, developed at Mathura, endured through the third century which marked the fall of the Andhras in the Deccan and weakening of the Kushans too.